Drunken driver in deadly crash gets 25-year prison term

Hoffman now facing up to 25 years in prison

1of2Brendan Hoffman, left, and his current attorney, Peter Moschetti, right, stand in Rensselaer County Judge Debra Young's courtroom where Hoffman was scheduled to be resentenced on Wednesday. Young adjourned the case so that Hoffman can hire a new lawyer to examine a court decision that said his initial 5-to-15-years prison sentence was inadequate. (Bob Gardinier / Times Union)2of2From right, Rensselaer County Public Defender John Turi, Brendan Hoffman, and an unidentified state correction officer. (Bob Gardinier / Times Union)

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A 24-year-old Stephentown man was sentenced Monday to up to 25 years in prison for killing a friend in an alcohol-and-drug-related crash three years ago.

Brendan Hoffman was serving five to 15 years in prison for killing 24-year-old Christopher Baker in a 2012 one-car crash on a rural Stephentown road, but an appeals court last summer ruled the trial judge, Debra Young, should not have thrown out some of the most serious charges in the case after a jury convicted him of them.

Hoffman appeared before Young on Monday and was sentenced to 8⅓ to 25 years, upping his required minimum sentence by more than three years.

The appellate justices in July reinstated one count of aggravated vehicular homicide and a count of reckless driving.

Since July, Hoffman has asked Young for more time to hire a new attorney to examine the appellate decision and to file an appeal.

Young granted a delay request in August and again in October as Public Defender John Turi stood in as Hoffman's temporary counsel. During his appearance Monday, Hoffman was represented by Albany attorney David M. Brickner.

Hoffman was convicted last year of three counts of aggravated vehicular homicide, three counts of vehicular manslaughter, three counts of driving while intoxicated, driving while ability impaired by alcohol and drugs, manslaughter, leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving for the June 28, 2012 crash that killed Baker.

After the verdict was delivered, Young dismissed the three aggravated vehicular homicide counts and the reckless driving count due to a lack of evidence; the defense maintained that Baker, not Hoffman, was driving the car at the time of the crash. Hoffman was sentenced to five to 15 years, but prosecutors appealed Young's decision.

Hoffman was with a group of friends who were drinking and smoking pot. He left the party to go to a nearby store to get more beer when his car went off the road and flipped over, according to trial testimony.

He was picked up at the accident scene on Cranston Road and taken to a hospital in a private car. At first police believed he was alone in the car and left the scene. But four hours later they found out that Baker had been in the 2000 Neon with Hoffman. Police then searched the roadside and found Baker's body over an embankment. He had been ejected and flung about 100 feet as the car rolled over.